14 February 2004	Saturday	22 Zilhaj 1424

The Indian government, or at least its home ministry, is said to be considering a change in the itinerary of the Indian cricket team's forthcoming tour of Pakistan.

The ministry, according to several reports in Indian newspapers, wants the tour postponed till after the Lok Sabha polls which means that if it has its way the much-awaited series between the two arch rivals might not get underway at least till April. And if that happens, given the weather at that time of the year, it might well be delayed even further.

The Indian home ministry's reservations seem unfair on several counts. The first is obvious in that one would have thought that New Delhi's stance of continuously letting politics interfere with sport (at least in the case of cricket) would by now have been overtaken by the events of the Saarc summit held last month and of Mr Vajpayee's earnest resolve that the neighbours move towards a lasting peace and resolution of their outstanding disputes.

It was in that context that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had officially conveyed to its counterpart, the PCB, in Pakistan that the tour had been given the go-ahead by the Indian government.

Stories had appeared in the Indian media around that time saying that Saurav Ganguly and some others were concerned about security in Pakistan. However, this was denied obliquely by the Indian captain who had then said that his team were too busy with their tour Down Under to be thinking about something that was going to take place several months down the road.

However, once the Australian tour got underway, the Indian press began to run stories that some Indian players, especially Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, were on the hit list of some jihadi organizations.

However, anyone who follows Indian newspapers regularly would know that such stories have appeared in the past, and even if, for the sake of argument, they are true, consideration has to, or should, be made for the guarantees being given by the Pakistan government that the players will get the kind of security that is normally reserved for visiting heads of state.

So, if the Indian premier can visit Pakistan - and he surely must be on the hit-list of the jihadis, that is if Ganguly and Tendulkar are - then there is an equally strong case for the Indian cricket team to come here.

As far as the reservations of India's home ministry are concerned, they seem to have little relevance or logic. Why should the tour be postponed till after the Lok Sabha elections? Does the BJP really believe - a sensible inference to make from what is happening of late on this matter - that if the Indian cricket team loses the series to Pakistan its own chances of winning the election will correspondingly diminish?

And why are its junior ministers issuing statements (the junior home minister issued one on Thursday) that the series might have to be rescheduled even before the three-member security delegation sent by India ends it inspection of match venues in Pakistan?

Let's hope that the hawkish home ministry is not again trying to undermine Mr Vajpayee's peace overtures. In any case, it would be sad day for cricket if bilateral matches were decided by elections in the respective playing nations.

The Indian government needs to stick to its earlier agreed upon programme and go ahead with the tour as scheduled. After all, the cricket series is as strong a confidence-building measure as any and its postponement will only strengthen the hawks on either side (Mr Thackeray has already expressed resounding approval of the so-far-premature news reports that the series is in doubt).